The new studio album “The Circus and the Nightwhale” by legendary rock guitarist Steve Hackett is a concept album in which the character Travla takes center stage and drives the story forward. The musician sees Travla as a character that everyone can empathize with, but who also has autobiographical backgrounds. For the musician, the 13 tracks on his 30th solo album also serve to say things that he has “wanted to say for a long time”.

And for this mission, Steve Hackett has brought in musical guest contributions from all over the world, including Sweden, Austria, the USA, Azerbaijan and Denmark.

However, the line-up of “The Circus And The Nightwhale” includes Steve on electric and acoustic guitars, 12-string guitar, mandolin, harmonica, percussion, bass and vocals as well as some familiar faces:

Roger King (keyboards, programming and orchestral arrangements), Rob Townsend (saxophone), Jonas Reingold (bass), Nad Sylvan (vocals), Craig Blundell (drums) and Amanda Lehmann (vocals). Nick D’Virgilio and Hugo Degenhardt return as guests on the drum stool, the excellent sound engineer Benedict Fenner can be heard on keyboards and Malik Mansurov is back on guitar. And finally, Steve’s brother John Hackett can be heard again on the flute.

Not only does this album impress with its fantastic 5.1 Surround Mix on audio blu-ray, but also with a media booklet of 32 pages. Steve aptly summarizes the sonic experience of “The Circus And The Nightwhale”: “It’s a beautiful journey that starts dirty, scratchy and smoky and then becomes heavenly and divine. How can you resist that?”